“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” (2 Tim 2:15 NIV)
“Will you be ready, with all faithful diligence, to banish and drive away from the Body of Christ all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to God’s Word; and to use both public and private admonitions and exhortations, to the weak as well as the strong within your charge, as need shall require and occasion shall be given?” (The Ordinal, “The Examination of a Priest,” BCP 2019 @ 491)
I want to address the third and fourth “existential crises” Warren Cole Smith suggested we address in his public letter to the ACNA on “Why the Anglican Church faces existential challenges.”. Under the challenge of “Theological Education,” he writes:
“Because ACNA has so many refugees from other denominations, it is tempting to call it a ‘melting pot.’ But the current reality is less a melting pot than a salad bowl.
That is a glib way of saying that a lot of Anglicans are not … well … truly formed in the Anglican faith. They have retained the spiritual formation of the tradition from which they came — everything from Calvary Chapel and Vineyard to high church Episcopalians and Catholics. Again, that diversity can be a strength, but it is a diversity that must be more intentionally integrated into Anglican theology and polity.”
He goes on to note that many nationally recognized seminaries offer a course or two that allow them to claim they have an “Anglican Track” but that these courses are minimal at best. And so, he concludes that this lack of Anglican formation in the clergy presents a vulnerability to leaders at odds with the history and fundamental doctrines of the ACNA. He then goes on in his fourth crisis to cite the recent problem with the Luminous Church in the ACNA diocese of C4SO as Exhibit A, a congregation whose clergy and website affirmed LGBTQ Pride events and played “fast and loose” with fundamental Anglican doctrines of baptism—among other things.
Let’s be clear: this concern addresses the increasing numbers of those coming into ACNA from other denominations and seeking ordination. There is no “existential crisis” with regards to those already Anglican, already worshipping in an ACNA church, and who are pursuing their theological education through our ACNA-recognized seminary, Trinity Anglican Seminary, in Ambridge PA, or other seminaries approved by ACNA that teach and form candidates for Holy Orders.
Full disclosure: I am a third generation Anglican and a PK who went to TEC’s General Seminary (1985-1988) long before we left The Episcopal Church. I have very little positive to say about the theological orientation of General Seminary other than that it presented me with many opportunities to think through the modernist and post-modern revisionist heresies of TEC from which we ultimately disassociated ourselves in returning to our Anglican Formularies (The Bible, the Thirty-Nine Articles, the Creeds, and the BCP 1662, and the Ordinal) when we formed the ACNA.
I recently had the privilege of speaking with Archbishop Emeritus Robert Duncan, the Rev. Dr. Brian Hollon, Dean of Trinity Anglican Seminary, and the Rev. Dr. Sam Fornecker of the Ridley Institute at St Andrews, Mt. Pleasant, SC (where our new archbishop, the Most Rev. Steve Wood, presides). Together we thought through this question: How do we form clergy in the Anglican way who are coming from other denominations?
1) We must provide an immersion learning experience.
Candidates from other traditions should learn what they need to know about the Anglican way in a community that follows the rhythms of the Daily Office (including preaching). This is what candidates from other traditions learn in the January and June term intensives at Trinity Anglican, with Archbishop Duncan in his course on Anglican worship and liturgy and the Book of Common Prayer 2019. It is what candidates learn in the course I teach on Anglican Polity and Canon Law, and the reasons for the Constitution and Canons of the ACNA, also at Trinity Anglican during the Jan/June Term.
2) We need to focus on those Anglican formularies that define how clergy follow Jesus and lead others to live their lives in the Anglican way.
Those formularies include the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, the Book of Common Prayer 1662, and its Ordinal. The Ridley Institute also includes the Book of Homilies, which was another source of doctrine, discipline, and worship during the 16th century English Reformation foundational to the Anglican way. According to the Rev. Dr. Fornecker, we need to find ways not to simply read or lecture about these formularies but to engage theme in a vernacular and dialogical way. How do we express these 16th century documents in our own language, so that we fully understand and internalize them and their pastoral, missional, and societal vision for us as Anglicans? At the heart of such discussions is the discovery of Anglican “pastoral identity,” which underlies the vows and undertakings of those coming into Anglican Holy Orders from other traditions. Dr. Fornecker also suggested some kind of a supplemental “independent study” by each candidate to study and write on a key figure within our Anglican tradition, not only among the 16th century Reformers like Cranmer, Jewell, and Hooker but subsequent Anglican “divines” like George Herbert, Bishop J.C. Ryle, Handley Moule, John Stott, and J.I. Packer. It would enrich each clergy person’s experience to become a disciple of one of these luminaries from our tradition, so that we become indoctrinated into a tradition of life, of following Jesus in the Anglican way, rather than simply a particular doctrine.
3) We need to make these “immersion learning experiences” accessible.
Long ago I had the privilege of teaching aspirants to Holy Orders in Systematic Theology and Pastoral Theology/Spirituality for Ministry in Northern Virginia, when Truro Church served as a satellite campus of Trinity Ambridge and local clergy like myself were ‘licensed’ by Trinity to teach its approved curriculum in these areas. In so doing, we provided lower cost and easily accessible theological education for working people who were discerning or already aspirants for Holy Orders in the Church. Is it time for us to return to this model, enhanced by periodic immersion learning over a whole week together?
These elements are exactly what we provide our Anderson-Trane Fellows. Through a combination of the immersion-learning experience based on the foundations of 16th century Anglican Reformers we had together at the Wittenberg, Germany Reformational Studies Center in May and continuing monthly gatherings for prayer and discussion, our Fellows have already begun this process. In January 2025 they will have a second immersion learning experience on the critical questions we face today in mission: What does it mean to flourish as a human being in light of what and who we are and what do scripture and tradition have to say about this? How did the early church address these same questions and with what results? Does this provide a way for us to engage these same issues, with more to come? Are these problems affecting only certain clergy and congregations, or is there a deeper issue province-wide to engage with a more solid theological education?
Here at the American Anglican Council, we care deeply about answering these very questions with theologically-grounded answers and solutions. The health and theological formation of our clergy is very dear to our heart. In addition to the Anderson Trane Fellows, we published The Daniel Declaration: A Call to Mission, A Place to Stand and continue to create and support educational resources as a contemporary restatement of what we believe as Anglican followers of Jesus Christ. More than that, through our Clergy Care Groups we seek to develop not only theologically-competent leaders but individuals who are well connected and cared for. Through all of these ministries, we continue to shape the next generation of Anglican leaders so that they become like those whom the Apostle Paul commends as rightly handling the word of God (2 Timothy 2:15) as they interpret and apply it to the ever-changing missional challenges of the surrounding culture.
